Collaborative Research: Conference: 2024 Aspiring PIs in Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace

安全和值得信赖的网络空间计划(SATC)是NSF支持计算机安全和隐私研究的首屈一指的计划。新的主要调查人员，我们称之为有抱负的私人投资人员，经常发现撰写他们第一个成功的SATC资金提案令人生畏和困难。该项目资助了一个为期1.5天的研讨会，以支持这些有抱负的私人投资机构准备具有竞争力的SATC资金提案。讲习班的目标是向有抱负的私人投资机构提供指导和对其提案的直接反馈，这可以是他们首次提交的提案，也可以是对之前被拒绝的提案的修订。研讨会的新奇之处在于，它与导师们就他们的研究计划进行了一对一的会面，参与了模拟NSF优点审查过程的模拟小组，以及制定了研究执行摘要。总之，这些活动旨在帮助有抱负的私人投资机构制定令人信服的全面研究计划。研讨会的更广泛的意义和重要性在于，这些活动将对更好地装备来自一系列机构和背景的有抱负的私人投资机构，以撰写有竞争力的SATC提案，更好地反映国家研究人员的广度和他们的想法。撰写成功的资金提案通常需要大量关于社区期望和规范的隐性知识。有经验的私人投资机构(即那些以前获得资助的人)及其同事利用过去审查提案的经验，以及从与同行的讨论中获得的“民间知识”。缺乏这种经验的有抱负的个人投资机构通常在竞争性筹资过程中的成功程度较低，即使他们的智力想法可能与有经验的个人投资机构的智力想法不相上下或超过经验丰富的个人投资机构。值得注意的是，有经验的PI更有可能在已经得到NSF慷慨支持的大型大学工作，成为现有专业网络的一部分，并且来自相同的学术血统。雄心勃勃的PI研讨会旨在确保有抱负的PI关于改善国家安全和隐私的想法与经验丰富的PI的想法处于更公平的竞争环境中。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace program (SaTC) is the premiere NSF program for supporting research in computer security and privacy. New principal investigators, whom we term aspiring PIs, often find writing their first successful SaTC funding proposal intimidating and difficult. This project funds a 1.5 day workshop to support these aspiring PIs in preparing competitive SaTC funding proposals. The workshop's goals are to provide mentorship and direct feedback to aspiring PIs on their proposals, which can represent either their first submission attempt or a revision of a previously declined proposal. The workshop's novelties are its one-on-one meetings with mentors about their research plans, participation in mock panels that simulate the NSF's merit review process, and the development of a research executive summary. Together, these activities are designed to help aspiring PIs develop compelling and comprehensive research plans. The workshop's broader significance and importance are the impact these activities will have on better equipping aspiring PIs from a range of institutions and backgrounds to write competitive SaTC proposals, better reflecting the breadth of the nation's researchers and their ideas.Writing a successful funding proposal often requires substantial implicit knowledge about community expectations and norms. Experienced PIs (i.e., those who have previously been funded) and their colleagues draw on past experiences having proposals reviewed, as well as "folk knowledge" from discussions with their peers. Aspiring PIs who lack this experience typically experience lower levels of success in the competitive funding process even though their intellectual ideas might match or exceed those of experienced PIs. Notably, experienced PIs are more likely to work at large universities that already receive generous NSF support, be part of existing professional networks, and come from the same academic lineages. The aspiring PI workshop aims to ensure that aspiring PIs' ideas about improving the nation's security and privacy are on a more level playing field with experienced PIs' ideas.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.